Baby's First Words Children are exposed to human speech patterns before they are even born. By the time they are a year old, their baby babble becomes more distinguishable as simple words, like “mama” and “dada”; by the second year they are able to string together two-word sentences. By age three they are able to make most consonant sounds and be understood most of the time; by age four, children are quite talkative and able to be understood. By the time a child turns five, he or she is capable of making all vowel and consonant sounds, complex sentences, proper...